Crazy In Love (Anthony Rizzo)

Can't Promise Tomorrow

Anthony

It's been some dark times for me. Although the Cubs had beat the Pirates and the Cardinals in the playoffs, my mind has been elsewhere. It's been with Tim and his family as he had been staying in the apartment for a while now. He has been confined to there for about a week and was basically under 24 hour doctor watch. It had only been one month since he was given two months to live, but it is obvious that he won't be with us for too much longer. He's fighting to stay here but he had two different types of cancers, he was no match for them. And while he knew it was his time he wasn't quite ready to go quite yet.

"Hey Mal Pal, can I talk to Anthony alone for a second" Tim asks as we all hung out in the living room.

Melissa was out trying to get her family settled into the city so they can all say goodbye to her brother when it was time and I was watching over Mallory and Tim in the meantime. But apparently Tim wanted to talk to me so Mallory goes and plays dolls in her and Melissa's room and I turn to Tim.

"What's up" I wonder.

"I have a few days left and there were some things I wanted to say to you. Some things I didn't want Melissa or Mallory hearing" he claims and I swallow hard. I softly nod my head not really sure of what he's going to say next. "My whole life I've never met someone like you, who is so wholesome and so kind. I can't imagine my life being anything worth being proud of if you didn't step in when you did. I mean, we jumped out of a plane and you helped me drive a boat and you make my sister and my niece happy. You really are the best friend I've ever had and I'm so thankful that you came into my life when you did. And what you do with cancer research and the children's hospital, I get chills thinking about it. You truly are the greatest guy I have ever met and I just wanted to say thank you.

I will keep thanking you until my last breath I take. I was so scared of leaving because I was afraid that I was going to leave my girls in a bad situation, but they have you so I know it won't be too bad. I know Melissa is going to be heartbroken and Mallory won't want to believe that I'm gone. But you... you can take their pain away. You can give them something to look froward to. I trust that you'll treat them right when I'm gone, I believe in you" he says.

"There isn't a damn thing I can do that will make losing you any easier" I whisper and he smiles.

"I know, I'm pretty great huh" he asks and I laugh.

"You're incredible" I insist.

"Thanks man, that means a lot coming from someone like you. I'm just happy you were here making all of my dreams come true. Well... almost all of them" he says.

"What didn't you get to do" I wonder.

"It's nothing.... it's silly" he claims as he looks away.

"Nothing is too silly when you're going to be dead soon" I assure him and he nods.

"I didn't put it on my bucket list because it doesn't really have anything to do with me and things I would do. But I wanted to see you and Melissa get married one day. I know you guys will eventually and I wanted to be there for the eventually. I wanted to be your best man and see Mallory walking down the isle as the flower girl. Have our families together for once and see everyone smiling, having a good time" he claims and I smile.

"Really" I ask.

"Yeah. It would be cool to see my two favorite people get married and be a part of it" he says.

"Well then, let's got to the courthouse tomorrow. Your families already on their way into the city and I so is mine for the playoffs. We can get a little service and we can be married before the sun even sets tomorrow. You'll still be here tomorrow, right" I ask.

"I can't promise tomorrow, but I can promise to try" he says.

"How about this, if you're still here tomorrow we can go down to the courthouse and Melissa and I will get married. You'll be my best man and your family will be here and Mallory can be the flower girl. It wouldn't be all that detailed but it's going to happen" I promise.

"And how does Melissa feel about getting married tomorrow..." he trails off.

"Hey, she can always divorce me once you die" I joke.

"She's not that stupid" he claims and I laugh.

"No... no she's not."

Once Melissa returns from getting her family into hotels I explain to her my idea. The one last thing Timothy wanted to see before he's gone. She doesn't hesitate to help me get this figured out. Once I explain the situation and why this needs to happen really soon I get a appointment set up at the courthouse for tomorrow and she tells her family to buy some nice clothing on the way in to the courthouse tomorrow. She finds herself a simple white dress and one for Mallory too. I invite some of the guys on the team and they easily agree to do it once they find out its for Timothy. We were in the middle of the Mets series but this was bigger than the game of baseball if you ask me.

"Alright, I think we're all set" Melissa says as she joins me in the living room. It was about 2 in the morning and we spent most of the night trying to get everything figured out. But I think we got a nice little wedding service set up for tomorrow.

"You ready to get married" I ask and she giggles.

"Oh yeah. Totally ready" she replies sarcastically.

"We don't have to get actually married. It can be fake rings and a fake service and he would never know" I insist.

"If we're doing all this work we better be getting married. Then maybe later on down the road we can have a big wedding with more time to plan and more of a warning. But for now, I think this is going to be good" she claims and I smile.

"Good" I repeat.

The next day comes and we had game that night. But before any of that I was getting married. Now I wasn't planning on all of this happening before last night, but it kind of felt right. I always knew I wanted to get married to Melissa, and I'm not mad it's happing now. I don't think it would be right to get married and Tim not be there with us. I wanted him to be my best man, to be right beside me when I see her walking down the isle whispering in my ear that I'm the luckiest man in the world. I'm just hoping my parents will make it to the court house on time or else I'll never hear the end of it.

But everyone makes it in and it was kind of packed in the court room. Melissa has a huge family and this is the first time I got to see everyone. But I introduce myself to everyone who wasn't in the bridal party off helping Melissa get ready. Her family was all super nice and despite all that's happened they're really happy for her and they're really happy we got to do this before Tim left us.

Eventually it comes time and everyone takes their places. Tim stands behind me as we watch Mallory come down the isle throwing pedals around like some kid of princess. She was my princess after all.

Finally Melissa comes out and that's when I realize something, even though I was doing this for Tim, I wanted this too. Seeing her standing there in a beautiful white dress all done up, it was a lot heavier than I thought it would be. It made my heart pound seeing her there looking so beautiful. Her dad walks her over and the closer she got the more this moment felt right. I feel Tim put his hand on my shoulder as he gives it a squeeze. I wipe a tear from my face as he pats my shoulder.

"Alright big man, don't ruin my big day" he jokes and I laugh away my sniffles.

"This is why I need you here for this" I tease and he laughs with me.

"Thank you" he whispers and I nod.

"Anything for you my brother" I say.

The service was short because we were at a courthouse after all. But we say our vows and put the rings we found today on each other. I remove her vail and pull her into a kiss while everyone cheers around us. I turn to look at Tim who for the first time throughout all this craziness was crying. Through all the cancer stuff and the bucket list things I've never seen him cry. But now he was because he knew that he got the one thing he felt like wanted more than anything before he was gone, and that was for his loved ones all together not because he was dying but instead to celebrate the love we all share. And we were able to do just that.